{"@context":"http:\/\/iiif.io\/api\/presentation\/2\/context.json","@id":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/61603\/manifest.json","@type":"sc:Manifest","label":"Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra","description":[{"value":"One of the nineteenth century\u2019s most innovative artists, Edgar Degas often combined traditional techniques in unorthodox ways. In Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra, the artist creatively joined the monotype technique, rarely used in his time, with the fragile medium of pastel. Described as \u201cthe powder of butterfly wings,\u201d pastel was the perfect medium to illustrate the onstage metamorphosis of spindly young dancers into visions of beauty as perfect and short-lived as butterflies. This work, executed on one of the widest monotype plates ever used by the artist, bears Degas\u2019s characteristically cropped forms and odd vantage points, which effectively convey the immediacy of the scene. The view is from the orchestra pit, with the necks of the double basses intruding into the dancers\u2019 zone. The central dancer is in fifth position, en pointe, but the random placement of the corps de ballet, with the dancers\u2019 free-flowing hair, suggests a rehearsal rather than a performance. The Paris Op\u00e9ra was the official school of the first state-supported ballet, the Acad\u00e9mie Royale de Danse, created in 1661.\n","language":"en"}],"metadata":[{"label":"Artist \/ Maker","value":"Edgar Degas\nFrench, 1834-1917"},{"label":"Medium","value":"Pastel over monotype on cream laid paper"},{"label":"Dimensions","value":"Plate: 35.2 \u00d7 70.6 cm (13 7\/8 \u00d7 27 13\/16 in.); Sheet: 35.9 \u00d7 71.9 cm (14 3\/16 \u00d7 28 5\/16 in.)"},{"label":"Object Number","value":"1981.12"},{"label":"Collection","value":"<a href='http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/collection' target='_blank'>Art Institute of Chicago<\/a>"}],"attribution":"Digital image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.","logo":"https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/Art-Institute-of-Chicago\/template\/main\/aic-logo.gif","within":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/collection","rendering":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artworks\/61603","format":"text\/html","label":"Full record"},"sequences":[{"@type":"sc:Sequence","canvases":[{"@type":"sc:Canvas","@id":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/cb34b0a8-bc51-d063-aab1-47c7debf3a7b","label":"Ballet at the Paris Op\u00e9ra, 1877. Edgar Degas, French, 1834-1917","width":843,"height":422,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","on":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/cb34b0a8-bc51-d063-aab1-47c7debf3a7b","resource":{"@type":"dctypes:Image","@id":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/cb34b0a8-bc51-d063-aab1-47c7debf3a7b\/full\/843,\/0\/default.jpg","width":843,"height":422,"service":{"@context":"http:\/\/iiif.io\/api\/image\/2\/context.json","@id":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/cb34b0a8-bc51-d063-aab1-47c7debf3a7b","profile":"http:\/\/iiif.io\/api\/image\/2\/level2.json"}}}]}]}]}